Monthly Archives: July 2006

I saw an article talking about how the PSP lost to the (supposedly) inferior DS. It predicts the same for the Wii and the PS3. It reminded me of an article I recently read in Game Informer talking about the fact that the PS3 could be a potential disaster. The main reason is that system is designed to take advantage of HDTV’s. The problem? Not many households have them. And though it’ll be a format that will be accepted soon, that could be several years down the road. Leaving the PS3 with a smaller advantage over it’s competitors – and a much larger price tag.

I think Nintendo stands a good chance to move up in the big 3 of video games – to at least 2 and possible back on top. They are inexpensive, they have a much different gaming experience to offer and they’re offering a back library of games that many of us grew up with – NES, SNES, Genesis, etc. Not to mention the games they’ll be releasing for the systems – from what I’ve seen of Red Steel I’m excited about the possibility of FPS on the system. Enough so that I’m actually considering buying it shortly after release.

An old axiom in programming is “simplicity favors regularity” and Nintendo seems to have caught onto this. Sony meanwhile seems to have lost some perspective. And again, they’re pushing proprietary hardware onto us – something that hasn’t worked for them in the past and after the fact that their anti-piracy efforts recently have angered many people for various reasons.

I think the biggest problem they face is the announcement that GTA – their trump card the last few years – will be released on Xbox 360 at the same time. Now, I hate Microsoft. And I swore I would never buy an Xbox. But after playing it over my cousin’s house I decided to break down and buy a used one. And, against my better wishes, it’s my favorite of the current generation of systems. It’s by far the superior console – so much so that any new games I buy, I but for Xbox if they have it – and I don’t even have Xbox live. And their controller is more comfortable and better for more games then the PS2’s.

I’ve heard rumors that in order to get market share and try and make the most of their head start, Microsoft will be dropping the price on the Xbox 360 when the PS3 and Wii come out this holiday season. I’ve even heard as low as $300 possibly. That means for those of us that have held off buying them, we could potentially pick up the Xbox 360($300) and the Wii($250) for less then the PS3($600 for the real model).

2 next generation systems for the price of one. Pretty sweet deal. Let’s hope it happens.

Saw and interesting article a MIT professor about how the world is really just a big quantum computer. It’s a different take on the creation of the universe, the definition of reality and life after death. I’m kind of torn on how to take this. I mean, I have faith, and I believe that there is something bigger then all of us. I just never thought it might be a computer (and we’re all done if it runs Windows). The author does concede at the end to the existence of heaven, so perhaps it’s not that he believes God doesn’t exist – rather that the story we’re told by organized religion might be a little off. If you’ve ever read the book God’s Debris then some of this rings true. I’m willing to concede that being human, we may not be able to understand and/or fathom all that’s going on. And maybe we make generalizations to allow us to wrap our minds around it.

Pretty deep in all. I highly recommend God’s Debris and especially since he’s giving it out free in PDF form. It’s a relatively quick read too.

I like his last point. That somehow the ones we care about have affected this world and continue to be a part of it, even after they’re gone. It’s been shown, I believe, that matter can’t be destroyed – only reorganized. I’m not nearly intelligent enough to draw many conclusions from either work, but the more exposure they get the better.

To become less serious for a moment, speaking of computers Intel is slashing prices. Supposedly to match AMD’s recent advancements and to try their loss of market share. Not really related to the earlier topic, but I wanted to pass it along as well.

Ever wondered how a Death Star would match up against a Halo? Or the Borg ship to a Super Star Destroyer? Well, I don’t think the actual arguments could ever be resolved, but an interesting site allows you to at least compare them in size. It takes actual specifications and lays out graphic models so you can kind of get a scope of the different universes – all in one place.

On size alone, a Halo looks like it would decimate pretty much anything. Leave it to Microsoft to think bigger is better.